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Why can't I just have English language option in my games?
- Thread starter Canis lupus
- Start date
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Huh, I always thought EU gets the same version - the one with multiple language choices before starting the game, or is it a present-gen thing?
Mostly present-gen I think. Some recent games had even bigger problems for Eastern European regions, I think, where people suddenly got the Russian version.
However you wouldn't be able to truly appreciate the language as you have no understanding of it's nuances. Only time I prefer the original language if its a live action film or show personally. Dubbing over real people is the most weirdest thing ever because they often have that Martial Art Dub effect where the dub is saying one thing while the person's mouth is still moving according to the original language. With animation and video games the lips can often be synched with whatever language you want it to be or the lips just move without any rhyme or reason to fit any languages.
And I highly doubt I would be speaking Japanese right now if I grew up watching sub only animation.
I too speak multiple languages, three well enough to play games in them (English, Japanese, and German). I don't think I've ever seen a single game that contains all three -- they're all in different "regions" so enjoying them all would typically require the game to be purchased three times over.
The concept of "localization" (creating a product for a given locale and presupposing that they speak the majority language of that locale, rather than for speakers of a given language) is outrageous. Just translate them into whatever languages will sell well, and let the customers buy whichever languages they like. In this age of digital downloads and easy patching, it should be trivial to make language patches that can be downloaded and attached to any game. You buy the game, and you download whatever languages you can read and understand, and you enjoy the game, from wherever in the world you live.
Usually I prefer to play a game in its original language, but sometimes with Japanese games the English translation is so good (FFXII for one) that I like the English version more. Other times I love the game so much, or the game's text is so interesting, that I want to try it in another language just to see how the translators handled it.
Publishers need to stop thinking in terms of "markets", "regions", and "locales". Customers don't think like this; for human beings, there are languages you can read (to varying degrees) and languages you can't read.
The concept of "localization" (creating a product for a given locale and presupposing that they speak the majority language of that locale, rather than for speakers of a given language) is outrageous. Just translate them into whatever languages will sell well, and let the customers buy whichever languages they like. In this age of digital downloads and easy patching, it should be trivial to make language patches that can be downloaded and attached to any game. You buy the game, and you download whatever languages you can read and understand, and you enjoy the game, from wherever in the world you live.
Usually I prefer to play a game in its original language, but sometimes with Japanese games the English translation is so good (FFXII for one) that I like the English version more. Other times I love the game so much, or the game's text is so interesting, that I want to try it in another language just to see how the translators handled it.
Publishers need to stop thinking in terms of "markets", "regions", and "locales". Customers don't think like this; for human beings, there are languages you can read (to varying degrees) and languages you can't read.
Sentenza
Member
More often than not, it's just horrible to "enjoy" anything in a language different than the native one it was created.
Of course, you usually have to to find a compromise with it (I can read a book only in a language I can actually understand, for obvious reasons) but that's not the case with games and movies, where subtitles give you the chance to listen to the original performance mantaining a decent level of understanding of what's going on.
And it's obviously even better when you can understand that foreign language just fine. It's not just more enjoyable, it can also become a useful learning tool.
Forced dubbing in localized material is a crime (regardless of source and target language). I can't believe that it's almost 2013 and we still don't always get options for that.
That's the best immediate solution.
They should have a list on the cover with the languages inside. Not just "Jeu en entierement en francais." Which means the game is entirely in French. But I found out that sometimes this means that it is French Only or it supports French and English.
Just list the languages. Easy, better yet only release it in English.
Also in my country by age 16 you can speak 4 languages. Luxembourgish, French, German and English. But due to us being basically Belgium companies think most people speak French. I hate French, whenever I see a game in French Only I just avoid it. But sometimes you're thinking it will be Multi Language... now I have New Vegas in French and my god it's bad, can't even understand some words..
This needs to stop.
Just list the languages. Easy, better yet only release it in English.
Also in my country by age 16 you can speak 4 languages. Luxembourgish, French, German and English. But due to us being basically Belgium companies think most people speak French. I hate French, whenever I see a game in French Only I just avoid it. But sometimes you're thinking it will be Multi Language... now I have New Vegas in French and my god it's bad, can't even understand some words..
This needs to stop.
Belgikayi birak ve Ingiltereye gel, bizim oyunlarimiz Ingiliz dilindedir. Boyle gibi problemin daha olmaz
The Janitor
Member
Luckily we don't have that problem in Scandinavia
From wikipedia:
From wikipedia:
I can't say for the other consoles but with the 3DS you can import digital stuff. It's as simple as changing your location in the settings. But it's not really worth it unless you want to pay more in pounds, as the paid content is identical in whole Europe and everything is either multi-5 or English*. To play in a different language you need to change it in the settings too.
*Except for Link's Awakening which is sold in French, German or English depending on the country. And you can't change the language.
BTW I thought this kind of cultural products were segregated per area? IE you would find the French version in Wallonie and the Dutch version in Flanders? Or are you saying that sometimes there is just one version for the whole Belgium and it can be either French or Dutch?
LonelyGreyWolf
Banned
Wait. "Countries using usually one or just a couple of voice actors"? What? Like, one guy does the voice for every person in a movie? That can't be right, I must have misunderstood.
magicalsoundshower
Member
I used to think all PAL Wii games included an English language option, but then got burned horribly by Epic Mickey. The German translation has no charm to it whatsoever and seems extremely rushed, which is kinda shocking for a Disney product. Maybe I should've played the game in Spanish even though I'm terrible at it, maybe that would've been more fun. 
I also got really pissed when downloading Link's Awakening from the 3DS e-shop gave me the German version, in my opinon the super odd English script is essential for the LA experience. :/
I also got really pissed when downloading Link's Awakening from the 3DS e-shop gave me the German version, in my opinon the super odd English script is essential for the LA experience. :/
Goldrusher
Member
No, you understood correctly.
Hilfemaster
Neo Member
Thanks to this thread I remembered that Sony decided for whatever reason to dub Resistance 2 to Norwegian.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3-agYf5d-Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3-agYf5d-Y
It's a voiceover, like when in a live talkshow there is an interview of a foreign person. There are just a few people talking over the original soundtrack.
test_account
XP-39C²
Ah yes, like that. That is true. When you said speak, i was thinking more about knowing the language well enough to understand maybe at least 70% of it
I dont think that many swedish people at 15-18 years old know these language well enough to do that. I chose german myself, had it for 3 years and yet i cant really speak it. I understand a bit, maybe 10% if i should estimate. Doing a lot of shopping from Ebay in Germany, that also helped me a bit.
LonelyGreyWolf
Banned
Whaaaaa- That's messed up. I'm against dubbing but at least in countries like Germany the dubbing is done exceptionally well. So here it's just one or two guys doing to voices for every person. Not only is it low-quality, but it must be confusing and there has to be a severe lack of emotion and passion.
Very strange. Not only can't I imagine there being a demand for it, but dubbing a video game is quite expensive. The only time Sony dubbed a game to Swedish (as far as I know anyway) was with Ratchet & Clank future trilogy; which is at least understandable as it's a game aimed towards children and adults alike, whereas Resistance is a game aimed towards adults.
It depends on the quality of the dub for me and the options offered on the disc. I'm in QC, Canada and here store usually have to offer you both English and French versions and sometimes you only get the french dub on 360.
Most PS3 games are usually billingual while many 360 games I have only have one dub but with multiple languages available for the text and subtitles.
The biggest offender is that they don't same to take the dub as seriously as the original VA. Just try the french dub for RE6 and ME1 and you will laugh all right. It also doesn't help that it is usually a french dub made in France filled with idioms and expressions you can't really understand without living there.
Some good french localizations I played :
Inazuma Eleven DS : The voice acting was really good and the MC is voiced by the guy that did Ash in the French version of Pokémon. Text was also pretty well written. Only downside is that they pronounce Japanese names with a French pronounciation (ie Raimon like Raymond).
Baldur's Gate I/II PC : Text translation was really well done and in line with the French translation of the D&D books. VA sounded ok too.
Most PS3 games are usually billingual while many 360 games I have only have one dub but with multiple languages available for the text and subtitles.
The biggest offender is that they don't same to take the dub as seriously as the original VA. Just try the french dub for RE6 and ME1 and you will laugh all right. It also doesn't help that it is usually a french dub made in France filled with idioms and expressions you can't really understand without living there.
Some good french localizations I played :
Inazuma Eleven DS : The voice acting was really good and the MC is voiced by the guy that did Ash in the French version of Pokémon. Text was also pretty well written. Only downside is that they pronounce Japanese names with a French pronounciation (ie Raimon like Raymond).
Baldur's Gate I/II PC : Text translation was really well done and in line with the French translation of the D&D books. VA sounded ok too.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
So the blame mostly is local publishing then?
I'm not from the USA and I only speak one language.
Haunted
Member
They usually do have EFIGS or at least EFG... although not always as the OP shows. I could imagine that digital releases include only one language to cut down on filesize or when the version is unique to one country, like some of the German low violence versions on steam (ugh).
What I also hate are games that automatically recognise the system language without offering the option to change languages, even if they do include several languages on the disc.
Glass Rebel
Member
Yeah, it was annoying before I started using Steam for almost 100% of my gaming needs. Only encountered this problem once with Wolfenstein 2009. I don't remember when I've been to a German-only cinema either. Luckily Zürich airs a lot of movies in English as well.
Canis lupus
Member
That was the case last gen, you'd get the option to choose between many languages.
I'm still pissed about Halo Reach being French.
CadetMahoney
Member
Curious. . . Is it illegal to only sell something in the UK because you can be bothered with localization in Germany, France etc.?
Fuck Bethesda. Bought Dishonored on PS3 figuring it'd have at least english voices. Nada. That's the first time a PS3 game has done this. How fucking lazy must you be to not use however many extra GB of storage they have to include several languages?
It's a real pain, especially on 360 where it means you have to import from the UK and therefore can't play games on day one. Thumbs up for Bioware/EA though, who put up the english version as a patch for ME3 to download from Xbox live.
It's not the case anymore, it's probably a size issue. Games nowadays have heaps of dialogue and including everything in several languages on a single disk might not be possible (especially on the 360). On the PS3 it's less of an issue if the audio quality stays the same, but since it's not uncommon for PS3 games to have lossless audio... You're still running into an issue there. Although, of course that's not the only cause.
That's not exclusive to videogames though, I know some DVDs or Blu-Rays are only available in 1 language or even force subs onto the original language (for example, if you own the French Blu-Ray of Drive, you can't watch it in English without having the French subs as well).
IdreamofHIME
Member
When I lived in Thailand the kid in the house next door played through the whole of Final Fantasy X in Japanese thanks to this giant book he had of the entire script and explanations of menus/spells etc translated into Thai, while one time I was at a internet cafe and I saw a similar book for Silent Hill 2 sitting next to the PS2's they had.
I can't imagine playing games that way :/
I can't imagine playing games that way :/
LonelyGreyWolf
Banned
Of course not. If you're thinking of whether a game publisher could just rather publish a game in the UK and skip the rest of Europe; sure, they can do that. However it would be a financially idiotic move. If anything, translating it only to German would be a better idea, as German is far bigger in Europe than English is (and by bigger I mean amongst the native languages, granted more people understand English than German but you get the idea). Still, it's a much better economical move to distribute the game in as many countries as possible.
dragonlife
Member
This is exactly how I feel. In addition to that, I just flat-out enjoy playing a game I love in a language that is completely alien to me, both in dialogue and text. Unfortunately, it feels like it's always English voice-overs and [insert language here] text. I get ecstatic when it's both.
On the PS3 I know that games that didn't have the option, would use the XMB language. inFamous demo was the case I learned with. I never tested it in the full game, and don't know if any version had English absent.
Earthpainting
Member
I know the OP's issue all too well. The Layton games being in Dutch is incredibly frustrating. I want to buy them locally to stimulate the demand in this country, but I really don't want to put up with the dub.
After suffering through the horriterrihideougly (there isn't just one word that can describe it) Spanish translation of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, I swore to myself I'd never play another game in anything but the original language. Even the texts and subtitles I choose them to be in English.
LonelyGreyWolf
Banned
So... You never play Japanese games, or do you simply guess what to do and where to go?
I can feel the OPs pain. I live in Japan now and while most PS3 titles and some 360 titles are in English also, not all of them are... mainly all the Bethesda stuff, and also Halo. Playing Halo in Japanese completely sucks you out of the experience..
And don't get me wrong. I play many other titles in Japanese and I don't care. But those are Japan-made, and they get better quality stuff, plus it seems to fit... better.
Oh well, at least for the Multiplayer in Halo they leave everything in English, and also the menus are in English as well. I guess Halo 4 won't have English voices anyway, just like the rest of the titles...
And don't get me wrong. I play many other titles in Japanese and I don't care. But those are Japan-made, and they get better quality stuff, plus it seems to fit... better.
Oh well, at least for the Multiplayer in Halo they leave everything in English, and also the menus are in English as well. I guess Halo 4 won't have English voices anyway, just like the rest of the titles...
I dislike more how you need to switch the console's language instead of just picking what you want. I like Gears 3 in the Latin American dub, but that aside, I keep my console in English. At least Uncharted 3 allowed me to choose the language of the menus and the subtitles, it's just an option I think.
A bit off topic. I recall when PSX games were largely pirated in Mexico because it was basically impossible to legally buy them.
Which is why most games that had a "EN ESPAÑOL!" sticker mostly meant it was a converted PAL version with European Spanish. Harry Potter 2 was hilarious for Ron's voice.
A bit off topic. I recall when PSX games were largely pirated in Mexico because it was basically impossible to legally buy them.
Which is why most games that had a "EN ESPAÑOL!" sticker mostly meant it was a converted PAL version with European Spanish. Harry Potter 2 was hilarious for Ron's voice.
Funnily enough, I played through it in English in the Xbox, but I'll be sure to use that dub when I get it in Steam, been hearing good things about it.
dragonlife
Member
Alan Wake's Latin American localization was amazing, if you haven't given it a shot.
DidntKnowJack
Member
Yes, that's exactly what I meant. I thought everyone on GAF were Americans.
Ugh i hate those laitn rooted languages..Ya know with male and female objects and artikels!
So pointless!
CadetMahoney
Member
I just recall some rule that I can't find anymore. Maybe it was in the Persona 4 thread regarding the Europe release coming out next year insead.
I remember playing that Cobra 11 demo for the 360. Jesus, the accents
D
Deleted member 13876
Unconfirmed Member
My digital download of inFamous was definitely English and I'm also Belgian. However, I had to play the entire game in French when I had to review that game as the review code we had gotten was French, which pronounced Zeke as zeik, which is a Dutch word for piss.
Haunted
Member
German isn't rooted in Latin...
Theonik
Member
Funnily enough that's the sort of thing they are trying to avoid. Forcing people to buy the Dutch version that is much more expensive by not including subs in the UK release and making the Dutch version Dutch only.
D
Deleted member 13876
Unconfirmed Member
I really hope next-gen doesn't fuck us over and splits regions on a country by country basis. That would be dreadful.
